Syntactical Devices

•Stylistic Inversion
•Detached Constructions

•Parallel Constructions

•Chiasmus

•Repetition (anaphora, epiphora)

•Enumeration (asyndeton, polysyndeton)

•Climax (gradation)

•Antithesis

• Ellipsis

•Break-in-the Narrative
 Syntactical Devices (cont.)
 Rhetorical Questions
 Litotes
 Syntactic Stylistic Devices

Reduction of the sentence Transposition of

sentence meaning

Extension of the Change of word

sentence order

Ellipsis Repetition Inversion Rhetoric

Break-in the Enumeration Detachment questions and
narrative Polysyndeton other variants
Asyndeton Parallel ism
 Inversion
 Every noticeable change in word order
 It consists of an unusual arrangement of
words for the purpose of making one of
them more conspicuous, more important,
more imphatic
 Examples
 Inexplicable was the astonishment of the little
party when they returned to find out that Mr.
Pickwick had disappeared. (Ch. Dickens)
 Came frightful days of snow and rain. (K.
Mansfield)
 Yes, sir, that you can. (Pendleton)
 And doggedly along by the railings of the
Grand Park towards his father’s house, he
went trying to tread on his shadow.
 Detachment
 One of the secondary parts of the
sentence by some specific considerations
of the writer is placed so that it seems
formally independent of the word it
logically refers to.
 Examples:
 How could John, with his heart of gold.
Leave his family?
 Very small and child-like, he never looked
more than fourteen.
 Bitterly, she complained of a pain in her
back.
 Parallelism
produces two or more syntactic structures
according to the same syntactic pattern
 Mary cooked dinner, John watched TV, Pete
played tennis.
 Married men have wives, and don’t seem to
want them. Single fellows have no wives, and do
itch to obtain them.
 Our senses perceive no extremes. Too much
sound deafens us; too much light dazzles us;
too great distance or proximity hinders our view.
 Chiasmus
 Repetition of words, in successive clauses,
in reverse grammatical order.
 Gk. anti “in opposite direction”
“turning about”
 Examples
 When the going gets tough, the tough
get going. Ask not what your country
can do for you; ask what you can do for
your country. —John F. Kennedy
 You can take the gorilla out of the jungle,
but you can't take the jungle out of the
gorilla.
 More Examples
 Integrity without knowledge is weak and
useless, and knowledge without integrity is
dangerous and dreadful. —Samuel Johnson,
Rasselas
 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good
evil; that put darkness for light, and light for
darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet
for bitter! —Isaiah 5:20
 Repetition
 Is one of the most frequent and potent
stylistic devices.
 Types of repetition:
 Anaphora
 Epiphora
 Anadiplosis
 Anaphora
 The repetition of a word or phrase at the
beginning of successive phrases, clauses
or lines.
 From Gk. ana “again” and phero “to bring
or carry”
 Examples
 We shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the
end. We shall fight in France, we shall fight on
the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing
confidence and growing strength in the air, we
shall defend our island, whatever the cost may
be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight
on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the
fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the
hills. We shall never surrender. Churchill.
 Epiphora
 Ending a series of lines, phrases, clauses,
or sentences with the same word or
words.
 from Gk. epi, "upon" and strophe,
"turning"
("wheeling about")
 Examples
 What lies behind us and what lies before us are
tiny compared to what lies within us." —
Emerson
 Hourly joys be still upon you!
Juno sings her blessings on you. [. . .]
Scarcity and want shall shun you,
Ceres' blessing so is on you.
— Shakespeare, The Tempest (4.1.108-109;
116-17)
 More Examples
 We are born to sorrow, pass our time in
sorrow, end our days in sorrow.
 Anadiplosis
 Repeats the last word of one phrase,
clause, or sentence at or very near the
beginning of the next
 It can be generated in series for the sake
of beauty or to give a sense of logical
progression
 Examples
 They have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters,
and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns that can
hold no water. --Jer. 2:13
 The question next arises, How much confidence can we
put in the people, when the people have elected Joe
Doax?
 This treatment plant has a record of uncommon
reliability, a reliability envied by every other water
treatment facility on the coast.
 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God. --John 1:1
 More Examples
 The love of wicked men converts to fear,
That fear to hate, and hate turns one or both
To worthy danger and deserved death.
—Shakespeare, Richard II 5.1.66-68
 The following shows anadiplosis of a phrase:
...a man could stand and see the whole wide
reach
Of blue Atlantic. But he stayed ashore.
 Examples
  "In times like these, it is helpful to remember
that there have always been times like these. "
—Paul Harvey
 "Believe not all you can hear, tell not all you
believe." —Native American proverb
 "A lie begets a lie." —English proverb
 "To each the boulders that have fallen to each."
—Robert Frost, "Mending Wall"
 Enumeration
 a stylistic device of naming objects so that
there appears a chain of homogeneous
parts of the sentence:
 There were cows, hens, goats, peacocks
and sheep in the village.
 Asyndeton
 Lack of conjunctions between coordinate
phrases, clauses, or words.
 from Gk. a and sundeton “bound together
with”
 Examples
 We shall pay any price, bear any burden,
meet any hardships, support any friend,
oppose any foe to assure the survival and
the success of liberty. J. F. Kennedy,
Inaugural
 But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate,
we cannot consecrate, we cannot hallow
this ground. Lincoln, Gettysburg Address
 Polysyndeton
 Employing many conjunctions between
clauses, often slowing the tempo or
rhythm.

 from Gk. poly- “many” and

syndeton “bound together with”
 EXAMPLE
 I said, "Who killed him?" and he said, "I don't
know who killed him but he's dead all right,"
and it was dark and there was water standing
in the street and no lights and windows broke
and boats all up in the town and trees blown
down and everything all blown and I got a skiff
and went out and found my boat where I had
her inside Mango Key and she was all right only
she was full of water.
—Ernest Hemingway, "After the Storm."
 More Examples
 Water alone dug this giant canyon; yes,
just plain water.
 To report that your committee is still
investigating the matter is to tell me that
you have nothing to report.
 Climax (Gradation)
 Arranging the utterance so that each
subsequent component of it increases
significance, importance or emotional
tension of narration:
 There was the boom, then instantly the
shriek and burst.
 I am sorry, I am very sorry, I am so
extemely sorry.
 Antithesis
is a confrontation of at least two separate
phrases semantically opposite
 It was a season of light, it was the season

of darkness.
 I had walked into that reading room a

happy, healthy man, I crawled out a

decrepit wreck.
 Gilbert wears fine clothes while I go in

rags.
 While I am weak from hunger, Denis

suffers from overeating.

 Ellipsis
 The deliberate omission of one or more
principal words.
 Of Gr.”ellipsis”- a lack of
 Examples:
 The ride did Ma good. Rested her. (D.
Carter)
 I’ll see nobody for half an hour, Marcey,
said the boss. Understand? Nobody at all.
(Mansfield)
 Serve him right, he should arrange his
affairs better! So any respectable Forsyte.
(Galsworthy)
 Break-in-the Narrative
is realized through incompleteness of
sentence structure

 If you go on like this…

 You just come home or I’ll…
 If you continue your intemperate way of
living in six months’ time…
 Rhetoric question
is not a question but affirmative or negative
statement put into the interrogative shape
 Why should I do it? means I shouldn’t do
it.
 Why doesn’t he shut up? means He must
shut up.
 What could I do in a case like that? means

I could do nothing in a case like that.

 Litotes
double negation, expresses uncertainty

 After the brawl Julia was not dissatisfied

with herself.
 Martin is not without sense of humour.
 The decision was not unreasonable.
 The venture was not impossible.
 John’s behaviour was not disrespectful.